itual protection which heaven proffers to all, and which is extended to believers in all its present and everlasting benefits. Indeed, the Scriptures contain the history of several instances of preservation from temporal calamities, which we have the best authority to regard as typical of the believer's quiet refuge amidst all that can assail his religious peace now, or threaten the safety of his soul in eternity. He who rode securely on the bosom of that flood which whelmed, in one general ruin, the entire population of the old world, is such an instance. He who safely escaped from the fiery tempests that turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, is also an instance. And such an instance we have in the case of ancient Israel, who abode safely in their habitations, while the angel of death was executing his office in all the dwellings of their wicked op

pressors.

Now, sincere believers from that very peculiarity of character which constitutes them such, must have been the subjects of at least one great and all important deliverance, of which these instances are fit and striking emblems. They must have been brought into a refuge that shields from the storms, and bears up above the floods of divine wrath. They must have been led to escape from the region of pollution and guilt over which the curse of God hangs and is ready to burst in the vengeance of eternal fire. They must have found themselves by an act of signal grace, brought into safety, and screened from danger, when spiritual death reigned on every side. But notwithstanding an experience of the divine interposition so marked and unequivocal, they are liable to forget, that the same gracious hand that bore and shielded them from difficulties and perils which threatened their souls, is pledged to them through every successive step in their progress to that world, where no circumstance of annoyance can have place, and no evils interrupt the current of their joys. And lest they should ruinously forget this, God meets them

amidst every circumstance of threatening evil, and in such language as the text, points them to their safe retreat. COME, MY PEOPLE, ENTER THOU INTO THY CHAMBERS, AND SHUT THY DOORS ABOUT THEE: HIDE THYSELF AS IT WERE FOR A LITTLE MOMENT, UNTIL

THE INDIGNATION BE OVERPAST. Here, Jehovah by the prophet, calls on his people through successive ages in times of trouble, difficulty and distress, to retire from the world, and by faith and prayer to take refuge in himself, patiently waiting and cheerfully expecting deliverance. That we, my christian brethren, may properly regard the call and admonition here addressed to us, it is important that we should give our attention to two obvious inquiries which the passage suggests: viz. What is to be understood by the people of God entering into their chambers, and hiding themselves?-When are they to do this?

I. What is to be understood by the people of God entering into their chambers and hiding themselves? He who is chiefly respected in all religious services, and who alone can afford his people the safety and solace they need in this scene of iniquity and sorrow, looks beyond the outward form of their acts of obedience, and has his eye on the habits and movements of the heart. Men have been known to withdraw from the world, while they have carried its worst spirit with them into their cloistered retreats. It may be doubted, whether acts of total seclusion from the world, though attended with the inward acts of a crucifixion to the world, is what God ever requires of man. But it admits of no question, that he does require of his people a separation from the course of the world. I observe, then,

1. When he bids them ENTER INTO THEIR CHAMBERS he calls them to come out from an intimate communion and sympathy with those who seek no higher good than the world affords. He has set apart the godly for himself, and consequently expects they will separate themselves to be his peculiar people. Not by a rigo

rous abscission from the innocent and rational gratifications which are here, in some degree, promiscuously measured out to men as a part of their earthly heritage. Not by needless singularities and repulsive austerities, which are nowhere required, and rarely, if ever, found among those who are most spiritual and heavenly in their cast of mind. And yet they who ENTER INTO THEIR CHAMBERS in the sense here intended, become in this way, a singular people. They become distinguished by very prominent marks from the great mass of men. They act in a different sphere. They occupy a separate apartment. They pursue different ends. They are prompted to exertion by different motives. Though mingled with others in the avocations of life, they take with them wherever they go, their own peculiar element. They cannot live in the element of the world. They cannot breathe in the atmosphere of its sordid ends, its selfish aims, its low principles, and its loose maxims. While dwelling among worldly men, in seeing and hearing, they vex their souls from day to day with their unlawful deeds. They pant for a holier society. And though lingering below, they are drawn upwards by the strong ties of heavenly affections to the society of the just made perfect; where they are seen and known to belong by all who will candidly and seriously eye the temper of their hearts and the tenor of their lives. Now whatever the profane scoffer, or the stupid christian may say to this, some such separation from a fallen world must take place in every one who obeys the call of God to ENTER INTO HIS CHAMBER. Otherwise, what can shield him from the rage of that final storm which must drive the wicked to hell?.

2. When God directs his people to ENTER INTO THEIR CHAMBERS, he bids them seek protection in himself. Their CHAMBERS are the secret place of the Most High. To dwell there, is to abide under the shadow of the Almighty. To dwell there, is to have him for a refuge and fortress. To dwell there, is to be hid in his

Now the

pavilion-in the secret of his tabernacle. perfections of God are the secret of his tabernacle. They are a high tower into which the righteous run and are safe. But how do believers seek and obtain protection in God? How do they ENTER INTO these CHAMBERS of theirs, which are thus walled around with the perfections of the Eternal? Men do not, naturally and of course, find their way into these CHAMBERS of defence. It is only by the fervent actings of a vigorous faith, that the children of God throw themselves beneath his protection. It is faith alone that plants them in these high munitions of everlasting rock. It is faith by which man is first reconciled to God and justified by his grace, and thus all his attributes are gathered around him as a shield against the approach or infliction of essential evil. It is in vain, that these everlasting barriers against the approach of evil to the believing soul exist, unless faith throws them around the soul. So the believer, whose sense of need abates and whose confidence in the divine protection wavers, must by simple acts of faith, betake himself anew to his CHAMBERS of defence, or he will fall into dangers, and, like the Hebrew who heedlessly exposed himself to the tempest of mingled hail and fire that scourged the land of Egypt, will share the same evils that besiege the ungodly.

3. In exhorting his people to ENTER INTO THEIR CHAMBERS, God invites them to the more retired and earnest acts of devotion. ENTER INTO THY CHAMBERS, AND SHUT THY DOORS ABOUT THEE. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. The importance of such private, personal, and undisguised intercourse with God under the circumstances contemplated in the text, renders it certain, that this is the grand thing chiefly required in the expression we are considering. Believers can do nothing towards a compliance with what has already been considered as

included in this requirement, if they neglect this. They can neither separate themselves from the world, nor strengthen themselves in God, unless they bring their whole souls into a posture of deep abstraction from things seen, and of close and fervent intercourse with the invisible Jehovah. It is by such acts, that the believer becomes imbued with a spiritual savour, and invested with a heavenly atmosphere that keeps him separate from the contamination of earthly scenes. And it is in the transactions between his soul and God in the closet, that he gets himself armed with a consciousness that God is for him, and therefore, nothing can effectually be against him. O, the business of the closet, embracing rigorous self-scrutiny, deep communings with the heart, undissembled humiliation, and believing prayer before God, is the work that rears the separating wall between the believer and the world, and fortifies him against every thing that can annoy, seduce, or destroy him. How gracious is that God who thus invites his people to retire with him into their closets to hide themselves there in the secret of his tabernacle !

II. The second inquiry it was proposed to consider, is, when are believers to enter into their chambers? No doubt, they are to do it continually. They are to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. But there are important junctures, critical seasons, dangerous predicaments, when the house that is well secured, needs to be doubly guarded; when the unsleeping sentinel needs to be doubly watchful; when the well armed soldier needs to be girt about with triple panoply. Let me observe then,

1. That believers have special need of ENTERING INTO THEIR CHAMBERS in times of worldly difficulty and embarrassments. The causes of such embarrassments and difficulty in the worldly concerns of men, are often of so deep and subtle a nature, or lie so entirely covered up in the folds of the mysterious web of providential occurrences, or so far back in the series of events,